He made the most of Israel’s case, but gave not an inch to those who want to end the war and save the hostages
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress today wasn’t his first Congressional rodeo, but the stakes have never been higher. With the speech, Netanyahu became the world leader who has addressed Congress the most times: four. Yet his 1996, 2011 and 2015 speeches were not given while Israel was at war or facing such intense international isolation (over the deaths of tens of thousands in Gaza), nor while over 100 hostages were in Hamas captivity (many of them dead).
Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday as a new poll showed 72% of Israelis think he should quit because of his government’s failures on and since Oct. 7, when the Gaza border was left wide open for a Hamas invasion that led to a barbarian massacre of 1,200 people (as any other Israeli prime minister would have, I am certain). His well-earned unpopularity is hardly confined to Israel. Washington filled with protesters ahead of his speech, with around 200 Jewish Voice for Peace activists arrested Tuesday after demonstrating inside a congressional building. Many Congressional Democrats found something else to do, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
What I hoped to hear was any indication that he has learned something from the unmitigated catastrophe of his term (it’s hard to believe how much earth was scorched in a mere 19 months). Also, that he understands Israel needs to find either accommodation with or separation from the Palestinians, is ready to prioritize the release of the hostages, and will embrace President Biden’s proposal for a Western-backed regional strategic alliance against Iran and its criminal proxies. I’d also like to win the lottery, which seems more likely.
Here are my top ten thoughts on what actually transpired and basically a rebuttal to the hour-long speech (which is adapted from my contributions to a freewheeling wider live discussion in The Forward which you can find here).
- Netanyahu wanted the world to focus on Iran, not without reason. Iran has encircled Israel with proxy militias dedicated to causing it terrible harm, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, the Houthis to the south, and Hamas. Plus, Iran also oppresses its own people terribly. Regime change in Iran is a necessary goal for the world.
- However, Iran is currently a nuclear threshold state, which gives it a lot of deterrence. The party most responsible for this horror is, in fact, Netanyahu, who in his 2015 Congressional aggress argued against the nuclear deal with Iran, and a few years later goaded the clueless Donald Trump into pulling out of it entirely, which immediately enabled Iran to resume its program. This is typical of Netanyahu: Ideas that sound good after going through his eloquence machine are, in fact, moronic.
- In the speech, he made a savvy move in opening with a long reflection on the horrors of Oct. 7. Israel needs the world to focus on that outrage and not on the calamity that has followed in Gaza.
- It’s also not surprising he used the first person in claiming “I authorized” the recent successful mission to save hostages. With Netanyahu, this use of first person attaches only to successes, never failures. It’s practically become a meme in Israel. Here’s the thing though: much as certain people — the educated elites, for sure — despise and mock this tactic as uncouth, he calculates it works, and I think that he’s been right about that. That he succeeds in holding on to power despite his astonishing failures is evidence, perhaps, that these chicaneries are effective.
- Netanyahu wasn’t just speaking to Congress: he was also speaking to the people of Israel. When he rages against the ignorant protesters who don’t understand what Hamas did or the true context for it, basically all of Israel stands with him (which is rare). It will please almost everyone on Israel’s side to see him calling protesters “useful idiots” who are inadvertently serving Iran’s cause, and mocking the “gays for Gaza” who support Hamas while seeming oblivious to its rabid hatred of gays.
- It was a good turn of phrase when Netanyahu said that Israel sees every civilian death (on its own side, of course) as a tragedy, whereas for Hamas, Palestinian civilian deaths are a strategy. That too is true, though dimwits fail to see. All of this was Netanyahu being a great communicator, reminding the listener of what he might have been, before he lost the plot.
- It was also smart to compare Gaza to Japan and Germany post-WWII. People equate his vision to an eternal military occupation. But Netanyahu, by Nazifying Hamas — not without some reason — presents a plausible defense of the need to “demilitarize” and “deradicalize.”
- It’s interesting that Netanyahu thanked “all sides of the aisle” for “generous military assistance” from Israel, and praising Biden. This is a wise contrast to the narrative — which is correct — that he’s expressed ingratitude toward Biden in recent months. Yet the applause was muted from the Democratic side. That, too, seems to be a harbinger of Israel becoming a less bipartisan cause — although of course, some of the coolness may be a response not to Israel but to Netanyahu himself.
- The speech was very good for Netanyahu’s purposes: Shoring up his backing by pro-Israel Americans and trying to claw back some support in Israel. It maximized Israel’s case for the war and persuasively presented its enemies as demonic. It will please mainstream Americans and find agreement with almost all Jewish Israelis. Unfortunately, though, he gave nothing to the majority of Israelis who would like to prioritize saving the hostages, even if it means ending the war (which it does).
- And, of course, he conceded not an inch on any issue. Israel isn’t being vilified entirely without reason. It is not just ignorance or antisemitism of hare-brained woke narratives. Tens of thousands are dead in Gaza. A word of empathy for that horrendous loss of life would not have killed him, and might have gone a long way. But, alas, that is not his mode.
- A parting thought, stepping back a little.
The beleaguered Netanyahu walks a tightrope: This trip was met with a good dose of skepticism and even opposition in Israel, including criticism of him staying abroad for nearly a week in the middle of a war, amid credible claims that the visit is holding up the hostage negotiations and costing lives.
On the day of the speech, Israeli news outlets prominently reported that Netanyahu asked to delay his meeting in Florida with Trump from Thursday to Friday, which means he’ll stay until the end of Shabbat — which is the standard issue modus operandi weekend-extension gambit whenever his wildly unpopular and grasping wife accompanies him on trips, often to shop, and this time, presumably, to celebrate the birthday of his son Yair, a rightwing agitator who lives in Miami. Netanyahu faced unflattering comparisons to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, another wartime leader whose own trips to speak abroad are elegantly short, sometimes lasting only several hours.
So there are two things to behold: on one hand, the sweet elixir of a brilliant and eloquent politician on a top global stage; and on the other, an overpowering stench of corruption, indifference and megalomania.
